In today’s article, “What Can the United States Bring to the Peace Table for Ukraine?,” Codepink’s Medea Benjamin, along with her collaborator Nicolas Davies, very usefully reminded the world of a time when the world was only half-crazy. In March 2022, ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, carried out in Ankara, Turkey, resulted in “a 15-point ‘neutrality agreement,’ which President Zelensky publicly presented and explained to his people in a national TV broadcast on March 27th. Russia agreed to withdraw from the territories it had occupied since the invasion in February in exchange for a Ukrainian commitment not to join NATO or host foreign military bases. That framework also included proposals for resolving the future of Crimea and Donbas.”
They then provide a link to the Guardian’s coverage of Zelensky’s presentation: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/28/zelenskiy-hails-upcoming-ukraine-russia-peace-talks-amid-fallout-from-biden-comments-on-putin
Part of that coverage stated that Zelensky was “willing to discuss ‘neutral status’ at face-to-face talks with Russia in Turkey….” Then the Guardian’s coverage quotes Zelensky as saying in his broadcast: “Our goal is obvious – peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory.” And Zelensky granted a video interview “with independent Russian media outlets to signal his willingness to discuss the idea of Ukraine adopting a ‘neutral status,’ and also make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region, in order to secure a peace agreement with Russia.”
